When I was working as a cashier, especially around the holiday season when gift card purchases went through the roof, our boss told us it was mandatory to check IDs for any gift card purchases made over $50 if they paid by card. All of the local stores and restaurants in the area were made aware of a series of scams where people were stealing credit cards and running around town to spend the money on gift cards before the victim could cancel the card.

I had a customer come to the register and ask for a single $50 gift card, which is strange, anyway, as we were a sandwich shop; usually large gift card purchase totals were done as several cards of a smaller amount. When she said $50, I was looking directly at the register screen, punching in the security codes necessary to process a gift card while I asked her for an ID.

The woman went crazy at me for racially profiling her, and ranted at the guy standing behind her as she fished cash out of her purse and threw it on the counter it at me, then went into her purse again for her wallet. I told her that the ID was only necessary for credit card purchases, not cash. I said that she hadn’t had cash in hand when she made her request and I had assumed that a large purchase would have been made by credit card, so the ID was no longer necessary. She still thrust her ID within five inches of my face, all the while still ranting at the man standing behind her in line, who stared blankly at her the whole while with his arms folded.

The bills she handed me were two twenties and a ten. By management and corporate rules, I was required to check any bill over $10 with the bill-marker. The woman started screaming again when I marked the bills, and threatened to call the police on me.

Finally, the man who was standing behind her spoke up. He was a regular of mine who managed the game store across the plaza, and he told her flat out that I was doing my job exactly as my management required and that if she had come into his store to make a similar purchase he would have required his employees to take the exact same precautions that I did.

She demanded our names and stormed out with her gift cards, presumably to make calls to both companies complaining that we were racists. My customer friend assured me that he was going to talk to my boss the next morning and warn him about the lunatic woman and her behavior to save my skin. My boss never approached me about the woman so I’m assuming my friend’s call on the matter prompted him to watch the security footage and agree to brush off the crazy woman’s complaint because I was in the right.